You know, before we start any kind of words here, we like to start with something a little interesting. I heard a very interesting story, it was about little Johnnie. And he went to Sunday school one day, and he heard the beautiful story about how God created Adam from the ground, and then He created Eve from a rib of Adam. Little Johnnie was fascinated by the story, and he just couldn’t get it out of his mind.

One day, during the week he had baseball practice, and somehow, just by unfortunate circumstances, he got hit with the baseball in his ribs. And he ended up having to go home, and his mom picked him up, and took him back. And she said, “Honey, how are you doing? That must really hurt.” And little Johnnie said, “Mommy, just like Adam, my rib is killing me. I think God is making me a wife.”

Father we thank You for this day that You have given to us. We know that You have given us a great mission, that we are truly a miracle to somebody in this world. Father we know that You have planted within us exactly what that person needs, exactly what is called for. Father we pray that we may truly live the blessed life, that we may be that blessing to those people that You have sent into our lives.

Father, up until now, if there are any wrong doings that we have done, let us offer them up to you at this point. Let us ask for Your forgiveness, Father. Let us truly, in our hearts, repent for those wrong doings. And Father we pray that You may always see us from fresh eyes, that we ourselves may move from this place to become a greater blessing to this world. Father make us the palace of your peace, the palace of your love, the palace of your lineage. Father we pray that we may truly live the blessed life, and become that blessing for that other person.

In some way, many people in our tradition feel kind of guilty for wanting the Unification Church to succeed. “I’m a Unificationist but I feel guilty for wanting Unificationism to succeed.” Actually, we should not feel guilty for wanting to see Unificationism succeed. This is not a selfish desire. We want Unificationism to succeed and to grow because we believe that it holds truths, because it has the truth of the Divine Principle, the truth of the divinity of God as true love; the truth of True Parents as the inheritor of true love; the truth that all of us are able to inherit God’s true love and that we ourselves can become true parents as well. We believe that these teachings will help the world become closer to God and help liberate people from the divide of God and man and divine and human.

Opening Prayer by Rev. Michael Brazil:

Our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Mother! We really want to sing our praises and Hallelujahs to you, thanking You for the love and the grace that You have showered upon us. Today it is raining but we want to feel in our hearts that it is raining hearts and love, grace and truth and beauty and goodness. You are showering upon us, internally and externally, Your love, grace and joy. We want to soak it up, we want to inherit it and feel it, in the depths of our being so that we really shout out with Your love. We want so much to open our hearts to welcome You here today, to be with us, to join together, so that we can all rejoice in the big dance of heart, love and truth.

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that You will be here with us and that You will speak through our speaker today, that through his words we can come ever closer to You, that we can feel Your heart and truth and that we can have greater strength to be even better for You in the week ahead.

Again, we invite You and thank You and we most humbly offer all this to You as blessed central families gathered together from around the world. Aju!

Welcoming Remarks:

Yeon Ah Nim

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! It’s great to see you all. This early morning we went to the growth level Cheon Buk Goong and we prayed there. As it was raining on us, we felt that it was a blessing that was sent from Heaven.

We are always honored to have you here with us, and for those that are joining us via the internet, we are always welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim

Welcome brothers and sisters! If you are in the Catholic tradition, you know that before one prays, before one offers grace, they draw the cross on their body. I’m sure you’ve all seen that. So one day we were wondering together with the Hoon Sa Nims, “Hey, as Unificationists we want to draw the mark too!” But it is a little more complex than the cross, so how do you do it in a way that is spiritual, short and nice? Through prayer one day we got inspired. So we are going to do that together.

Let’s start with our hands like this; we are going to start with the outside. We are going to make the circle on the outside — that’s Give and Receive action. Then we are going to make the inside box — that’s the Four Position Foundation. Come on, together! And all together we inherit on the true love of God. You just drew the Unification mark! Let’s give it up. (Applause) It all came together in one.

Let’s start with the Cheon Seong Gyeong today. This is Cheon Seong Gyeong Page 640. Father says: “What is the one thing to be done in the world of humanity? The light of love must be bright. For that to happen you must catch fire internally and externally. From what? From the motive force to love.”

When we meet people and we want to share our faith, I usually show them the Unification mark, because this is actually the Principle, all embedded in a very simple symbol. You can see in this principle the Give and Receive action. All relationships must have Give and Receive to truly be able to move and to be healthy. Here we see the Four Position Foundation – that’s very simple. It symbolizes all our profound relationships. It symbolizes the relationship between spouses, between parents and children. It also symbolizes the relationship between man and the creation. In the third blessing in the Principle we can see that. It symbolizes all those relationships. Then when we come together in the center; it all comes together in the heart of true love that is a selfless love, a love that exists for the sake of others. That, in a nutshell, is the Principle. That is in our mark.

That’s what True Father is telling us today. ” The light of love must be bright,” he says. In our life let us always have this mark moving. It’s supposed to be moving, not supposed to be staying still like this. It’s supposed to be turning like this. It’s supposed to be rotating, to be alive.

In our lives, in our relationships, in our relationships with the environment, the creation, let’s always be centered on what True Father calls “the light of love,” on true love, that exists for the sake of the other. If we do that we will find ourselves more blessed, more victorious, more in the favor of God. We are going to have incredible victories. If you believe that, let’s give it up for God today! (Applause)

Welcome once again, brothers and sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim’s remarks about prayer:

Let us take this time to pray for our Abel good spirits. Those are brothers and sisters that have already gone but they are still with us. They are still protecting and looking over us. We want to take time to acknowledge them this week. They have done great things for us in the past; they are really helping us like our guardian angels that are protecting us. Let’s listen to this song of worship and praise and let’s offer this praise and thanks to them and to God for sending them into our lives. Let’s take this time for a brief prayer.

Unison prayer

Thank you brothers and sisters for taking time to offer your hearts for those who are passed before us but are still with us. It is always so important to not forget them, to recognize them. They are in our lives and are helping us.

Interesting Story:

I heard a story about Arthur and Mary. They were going to get married so they went to meet Arthur’s parents. After dinner, they were having a wonderful time. There were some interesting situations that occurred during dinner. On the drive back, Mary says to Arthur, “Arthur, I never told you this but I am an atheist and I never believed in hell. But you know what, honey, after meeting your mum I think I believe in it now. We’re not getting married.” That’s what she said! Oh my God, that’s a little scary! We love our mothers-in-law, come on!

True Parents Declaration:

These are my True Parents, the eternal king and queen of peace and liberator of God’s heart. They have saved me from my past and blessed my future. They give me true love, forgiveness, and happiness today. And I choose to receive it.

My mind is awake. My heart is open wide. From this moment I will change forever.

In my name I pray. Aju.

Main Sermon:

I would like to talk to you today about “Desiring the Promise.” In order to live the Blessed Life, we have to believe in God’s promise for us. God wishes for us to actualize all our potential; that is to be successful and influential, to be powerful, to have great wealth both spiritually and materially, not just for ourselves, but so that we can have great impact and give benefit to others. This wish is also for our movement in the age of liberation and complete release. You see, He really wishes for us to see true success, to build a stronger church and to see the Unification Movement go out and move the nations and be able to allow and help others inherit His true love. Learning how to desire His promises is one of the keys to living the blessed life.

Let’s take a look at some of these scriptures today. We are going to take a look at Christianity today. This is from the Psalms, Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Notice: when we delight ourselves in the Lord, when we obey His commands etc., He will give us (fulfill) the desires of our heart. That is to say, that all the real dreams and great potentials that we feel and that are latent within, He has already given them to us. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, when we follow His path of righteousness, then He allows them to come up. In the Psalms we can see and feel that.

Let’s take a look at Buddhism now. This is a very classic Bodhisattva vow. This is seen in every single Mahayana tradition or Vajrayana tradition that attests and believes in the Bodhisattva. Let’s read that together: “May I attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.” This is a very key vow. As you can see, it is filled with desire; it is absolutely filled with a huge desire, to free all from suffering.

Let us look at the Koran today. This is the 40th Sutra. Let’s read it together: “Be patient for surely God’s promise is true.” In our life, it is important that, as we are walking the path, we allow ourselves to have perseverance and patience; to know that the promises that God has given to us are true, to believe that they are true, and to move forth so that we can move into those blessings.

Let’s take a look at True Father’s words. This is from the Way of Unification, p.794: “No one could break off Jacob’s strong conviction, because he believed in God’s promise that he would establish the ideal people and nation with God’s blessing.” We see here Father again telling Jacob’s story, having a strong conviction in the faith of God’s promise for him to lead the people of Israel and to have the descendants of Israel flourish and succeed, etc.

When we look at the Principle, we see the Fall of Man. We see that the Fall occurred by desire. But is it really just desire per se (as such)? The Principle is actually very clear on this. It is not necessarily desire per se but it is Lucifer’s selfish, self-centered desire, the selfish desire to steal another’s love for one’s own pleasure and power; to exploit the innocence of Eve; to feel in control and to feel powerful; to disobey God and to be traitorous for selfish ego aggrandizement: “I can challenge God. I am just as powerful as you. I can do it. I have the power, too. I can destroy your plan.”

See, Lucifer exploited Adam and Eve for his own enjoyment and selfish sense of power. This desire, as we know, became the cause of the Fall. This selfish type of desire, as we see in the Principle, became inherited by humanity. So the inheritance of false love, selfish love and unprincipled love began to spread. The Principle is very clear between what is false love and what is true love. False love is self-centered; it is selfish, self-serving, using others for one’s own personal enjoyment. But true love is selfless; it is ‘egoless’, and serves others, and it benefits the whole.

When we have a desire that goes beyond ourselves and our ego, and serves a larger more principled goal, we know that God can support that. For example, Martin Luther King Jr had an enormous desire; he had a huge desire for the end of racial segregation. But we do not see him as full of evil greed and selfish desire. We see his desire as an honourable desire, a worthy desire, a principally based desire, supported by God. God does not want us to hate each other because of our skin color.

All the great religious leaders, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, all the great leaders have a great desire to see change and to help people find God and find truth. This is a huge desire that each one of them holds and that they passed on to their disciples.

I heard a story about a hermit who was meditating by a river one day, and a young man interrupted. He said. “Master, I wish to become your disciple.” And so the master replied, “Why do you want to become my disciple?” The man replied, “I want to find God”. The master then at that moment jumped up, did a couple of back flips, landed on the ground, grabbed the man by the neck and threw him into the water. He held his head underwater and the man was kicking and trying to get free but he could not. After about a minute, the master pulled him out of the water and the man was coughing and gasping for air. He was trying to catch his breath. Eventually the man slowed down, quietened down and the master spoke, “Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were underwater?” The man of course replied, “I wanted air, that’s what I wanted the most.” The master said, “Go home and come back to me when you want God just as much as you wanted some air.”

Brothers and sisters, in the same way, when we are walking the path (of faith), it is so important to desire God, to desire to follow the path of righteousness, to desire to live a selfless life, to desire these things. I’ve heard many people who have looked at the theistic religions and said that theistic religions cause a lot of problems in this world. They do a lot of warring and things like that. They have so much desire. They are so desirous.

And so the religions of the East are about getting rid of desire as the primary means for liberation of suffering. But actually, people who say this do not understand Eastern religions so well. In Buddhism, for example, the eradication of all desire is totally undesirable because, without desire, one would not be able to motivate oneself to work and strive towards enlightenment. Nor would one be able to move, to strive to free other beings and liberate them from suffering.

In Buddhism, for example, there is a principle called Bodhijita in Sanskrit which means “heart of enlightenment”. This is basically the wish to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all beings, and this is an absolute key to the Path. The Path in Eastern religions is not about throwing away all desire. It’s about channelling, changing the patterns of desire so that they are not ego-based and selfish, but rather selfless. And this is the same in all religions. We must understand that the desire in our spiritual life to eradicate all desire is not desirable. It is important for us to have the right type of desire that is within the Principle way.

In some way, many people in our tradition feel kind of guilty for wanting the Unification Church to succeed. “I’m a Unificationist but I feel guilty for wanting Unificationism to succeed.” Actually, we should not feel guilty for wanting to see Unificationism succeed. This is not a selfish desire. We want Unificationism to succeed and to grow because we believe that it holds truths, because it has the truth of the Divine Principle, the truth of the divinity of God as true love; the truth of True Parents as the inheritor of true love; the truth that all of us are able to inherit God’s true love and that we ourselves can become true parents as well. We believe that these teachings will help the world become closer to God and help liberate people from the divide of God and man and divine and human.

Saying that we are selfish as a religion because we wish to share this truth, that we are selfish as a faith community, is like saying that Christians or Buddhists are selfish when they share their tradition, when they share their faith, when they spread the teachings of Jesus or the Buddha, to guide others to enlightenment or freedom from suffering. It is not a selfish thing. This is a very important thing because we hold truths that we have in our tradition.

So we have to want. We want God and True Parents to be recognised. We have the desire for us to be recognised in society and we need not feel guilty about that. It is not a selfish desire. We are not doing it for our own ego aggrandizement. We are doing it so that all the blood, sweat and tears that have been shed by our parents and by our True Parents and by God are not done in vain. We do it because we believe that the patterns that True Parents have taught us, give and receive, four position foundation centered on God, selfless true love, are the pattern for peace and harmony in the family, in the nation and in the world. We believe that that is the truth, and that is a very powerful model for our lives. We should want to be recognised as a world religion with an immense desire to inherit the true love of God and to spread that true love into the world. It is very important for us actually to want and desire that.

I heard a story about a young man, I guess in his 40’s or 50’s, a performer, actually an opera singer. A lot of you may know him. His name is Paul Potts. He performed here in Korea just the other week. This man was born in Kingswood, England, raised by his father who was a bus driver and by his mum. He ended up in junior high school singing with some of the churches in his area but because he was always a little shy, he was bullied by the bullies at school. This made him lack self confidence as a person. He was never brave enough, he said, to be able to stand forth and to share what he had. But in his voice, in his singing, he said he found solace, even while he was being persecuted and bullied.

As an adult, he became a manager at a mobile phone company. He worked as a Carphone Warehouse salesman but he felt that this is not enough to his life: “This is not the great purpose for which God has sent me to this world. There has got to be more. There is something in me. There is a desire in me that is yearning for more than just a Carphone Warehouse job.”

And he stepped out of that fear. He had to take a step. He had to take a huge risk actually. And he risked being made fun of, he risked being bullied again, he risked being mocked etc. He went in front of probably the most difficult stage in all of Britain, and that is the stage with Simon Cowell and these kinds of judges. He went on the show called “Britain’s Got Talent”. He absolutely did something that we are going to see right now. Let’s take a look at this video.

(Video)

After that performance, he went on to win that contest, then perform at the Royal Variety before the Queen of England and then became an international opera singer and now travelling the world. When I look at this story, it kind of reminded me of our own tradition. We are kind of like Paul Potts. We began out in the countryside in the North, in Chungju, North Korea, with absolutely no foundation, absolutely nothing. True Parents went under tremendous bullying, a lot of severe persecution, just like Paul. And to this day, some of our unification families are still being persecuted.

But we are slowly, slowly being discovered by society. We can see that for example in Korea, with the changes that are happening in society, with the media turnaround. Over the last year there were a hundred different media articles about the unification movement, all positive. But there are still, of course, some places in the world and some people that continue to demonize the unification movement as a dangerous cult. But we are making inroads into society. People are starting to see that we cannot be compared to dangerous religious organisations that end in violence etc.

But just like Paul, he had to take a leap of faith. He had to say, “You know what, this level in my life is not enough. I am not going to be satisfied just here at the Carphone Warehouse. I know it is a great job. I know maybe that it is a steady salary. But there is something in me that is desiring something more. There is something in me that God has placed within me that can shine and inspire the world.” And this is like the Unification Movement. We have been in the indemnity period. We have been beaten down. We have been persecuted. We have been threatened a lot. A lot of our members have been threatened, even with violence.

But now is the time, in the age of liberation, to start getting more confident. Now is the time to start taking a leap of faith and say, “Wait a minute. We are not destined for just this. We are not destined to see ourselves being persecuted for the rest of our history. We are destined for something greater. We are destined for something that can inspire the world.” This is what Paul Potts did. He went onto that stage, the most difficult stage where, if you are not good, the judges literally tear you apart. He went up there with courage; he went up there with confidence. He was still a little insecure about himself. But as the contest progressed, he became more confident, understanding, ” Yes, maybe I can be great. Yes, maybe I can influence and truly inspire the world.” And he IS great.

In the same way, it is our own responsibility to want to be recognised as a tradition, to not just want to stay at the Carphone Warehouse level but to be able to step out as Unificationists and say, “You know what? We can be proud of our tradition. We don’t have to be persecuted anymore. We don’t have to be misunderstood. We can explain. We can share our faith with confidence. We have something, a truth that we bring to this world that is totally unique. We understand the give and receive action, four position foundation, all centred on selfless, altruistic true love; we understand that this is God’s essence and His plan for creation, the initial plan when He created everything.” This is a beautiful truth; it’s a powerful truth. We have to be proud of that truth that we offer to the world. Let’s give it up for UC! Come on! Let’s give it up for Unification family!

Here in Korea, we have a church down in the south called the Changwon church, down near Pusan, in the southern region. In the past the Changwon church was actually quite successful. It had about 500 to 1000 members there because we had related businesses that were in that area. They were very successful. Because of that situation some of the classes in the elementary schools were filled with over 50% Unificationist Blessed children; over 50% of the school class was Unificationist! The teachers there, even if they wanted to say something negative about Unificationism, they couldn’t because 50% of the community that they were trying to serve is Unificationist. When we saw this and compared it to other regions which have a very small Unificationist percentage, we saw that the children in those other regions were persecuted more heavily; they were made fun of more heavily; they were being bullied more. Even the teachers of other religious traditions were persecuting them, saying negative comments that would really discourage those young Blessed children.

More than anything it is for this reason that we as Unification tradition must truly come together and desire to want to grow and to make an impact. When we see our children that are suffering, when we see our children that are being persecuted and made fun of, because of being Unificationists, because of believing what they believe, then enough is enough in our eyes. Enough is enough! When we have good church growth, contribute much to the community – we see the Changwon church doing very good things in the community with service, partnerships with the schools etc. – , when we benefit the community, have a strong presence and are confident as Unificationists, then we have a lot of support and a lot of people change their minds about Unificationists.

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? It is important to understand that God has given us a promise. He promised us that when True Parents arrive, we really will be able to make a global impact; we will be able to spread the message of the Divine Principle; to spread the message of “Inherit the True Love of God”. We will be able to impact families and help spouses become better spouses, centering on God’s true love. And yes, we may have not been perfect in the past; we may have not been always able to be successful; we may have had organisations or businesses or other related organisations that were not so successful. But now, in this age, those things are turning around and we are becoming successful. We are becoming much more successful.

As you know, I mention almost every Sunday, that we had a huge turnaround with the Chaedang. All our companies are now successful. The church organization as well is developing and growing into a church that now is caring for members. We had church growth from 14,000 to 18,000 core members in the last couple of months. Let’s give it up for our Korean church all around the nation! That is because we are becoming more confident about our faith. We are becoming more confident about our desire to want to share our faith. We have nothing to hide! We have a great faith; a great tradition! We have a great truth that we offer to the world!

It says in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” If we do not lose heart, we shall reap, God promises. That is the same thing, the same desire that we must have in our hearts, I believe, in this age of liberation to truly be able to allow the community to shine. To not only let our Korean church but the worldwide Unification Church to get stronger and brighter and, as True Father said, to let the light of love shine, to let the truth and the true love that emanates from our community shine into the world. That is truly an important thing for us as Unificationists, to take that leap of faith and to share the faith, to be able to say: “I am confident in who I am and I am excellent in what I do. I am the best teacher. I am the best businessman. Whatever work I may do, I will be the best at it and I will share my faith.” This kind of confidence is something that is attractive and, in this time of liberation and complete release, it is something that we absolutely need as we move into the growth stage temple.

Every morning now we are doing sincere devotions around the growth stage temple and we feel just incredibly inspired. When you go to that area, you will see that this is just a totally different level that the Unification Movement will be in Korean society. We will be at the level of major churches here in Korea, the churches that are the largest amongst the world’s churches. As we progress and succeed at the growth stage temple – 21,000 new members – where we witness and share our faith, and as we succeed and move forward towards the 210,000 member temple, that will be literally the biggest temple in the world.

It is very important for us to have confidence in what we are doing; to believe that really it is our time when True Parents are here, to share the incredible truth that they revealed from heaven, to not be shy about that, to believe what we believe, to share our belief, not be arrogant about it, but to share it, to believe it and to actualize it in our lives.

I do believe that in this age of liberation and complete release, if we do that and we want to desire that promise that God has given us, that He has not only given us individually but given to our entire community, from young to old, then I do believe that in this age, if we move forward with that kind of selfless motivation, desiring that promise, we will absolutely find ourselves living the Blessed life, inheriting the true love of God, moving the nations and moving closer every day to world peace. If you believe it, let’s give it up for God and True Parents!

Closing Prayer by Hyung Jin Nim:

Let’s join our hearts in a final prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for the blessing You have given us today. We thank You because we know You are our parent. Your only wish for us is that we can truly be all that we can be. Dear God, You have given us so much incredible potential. And You also have given us the desire in our hearts to share that potential with others. As we continue to learn, let us today understand the difference between false desire and good desire. Father, let us not cast away ALL desire, but let us understand that desire which brings You joy, our True Parents joy, and our community joy. For that type of desire is honorable, righteous and beautiful. Father, we pray that we will be confident to have that righteous desire and become saviors to this world, like our True Parents have taught us. And to be little messiahs ourselves, that go forth and wish and yearn to help and free others from suffering. Father, we pray that in our lives we can find this purpose, and as we center ourselves on this purpose, we will achieve great success and victory, all to be returned to You for Your glory.

Father, thank you that You have given us this time to reflect and to remember that it is alright to want to have You shine in this world. We can desire the truth that You have given us. We can allow the truth of our True Parents and the Divine Principle to shine into this world, to restore marriages, families, and nations. Father, we believe that this will become a reality.

To do this, we want to step out of our past, meeting those new horizons, with hope, expectancy, and a bright heart of love that will conquer all darkness. Thank you so much. We pray this together as one central blessed family. Aju.

This mark is what we fought for. This secret Principle that True Father revealed the give and receive action, the Four Position Foundation, all centered on the True Love of God. The secret of heaven, the secret to peace, the secret to unity, this we must not let die, this we must not let disappear. This is our pride as church members, this is our heart, is our principle.

On June 3, 2009, Mr. and Mrs. Kook Jin Nim and Mr. and Mrs. Hyung Jin Nim came to Cheongpyeong to talk to the Japanese members participating the ‘Education Proclaiming the Completion of the Liberated Realm of the Portion of Responsibility in God’s Providentiayl History’ (Original Divine Principle Workshop) held in Cheongpyeong. Nearly for an hour, Hyung Jin Nim spoke and shared his heart with the members.

Annyeonghasimnikka

Good to see you brothers and sisters, it’s really tremendous joy. You know we are always so moved and so grateful when we see our Japanese brothers and sisters. Wherever we go we always tell everybody that our Japanese brothers and sisters truly have been the owners of our church. We know the brothers and sisters have worked through the indemnity periods of serving True Parents, serving our entire unification family, around the world. Sacrificing, giving their whole hearted devotions, never stopping to be loyal to True Parents, walking the way of the path of tears, the path of suffering.

This has really been our brothers and sisters’ course in Japan, for the last 30 years. We are truly humble, and we truly believe, because of that sacrifice, Japanese members stand in the position of true filial children to True Parents, and this cannot be denied.

Positive Changes

I understand that you also had, based on True Parents’ direction and brother Kook Jin leadership, the first elections to elect the regional directors in Japan, that’s the first time in history. That’s a very big change for our Japanese movement and I am sure that you all felt that.

In Korea that change happened, about a year before and initially it was elections by ministers to select a new regional director. That had never been done in unification church history. That was very moving into the Realm of Liberation and Complete Release and moving away from the Indemnity Period type system.

Recently in Gangnam region we had one regional director who had had retired. There had to be a decision made for a new regional director for Gangnam region. There were recommendations from other regional directors where then the ministers will decide and elect the next Gangnam regional director. But we said no that’s not a good idea.

So for the fist time ever in Unification Church history, just couple of weeks ago actually, the owners of the Gangnam region, the owners are people who have been contributing to the community of the faithful by practicing a life of tithing for one year without any missing. The owners of the church voted to elect the new Gangnam regional director, first time ever in the unification church history.

That is a very big change, because in this new Realm of Liberation and Complete Release, our leaders cannot just treat their superiors well and not treat the members well. Now in this new Realm of Liberation and Complete Release the leaders have to be accountable also to the membership, the owners of the church.

The information of the candidates who were running for the Gangnam region was disclosed transparent. From educational background to career and personal assets, all were fully disclosed so that the membership could completely see everything and decide who would become the leader. (Applause)

So this is also another amazing change that has happened that True Parents allow it for us to happen in the church. Due to brother Kook Jin professional team and their help, we have been able to run the ministry with full transparency of membership contribution. In the past, data that we would not release are now open to the public and members can see where the donations that were offered at the Head Quarters Church are going and being used for. And this is also a very big change in our church management and a very big change on how we manage our members’ blood sweat and tears.

Unification Mark

We have this symbol, our official unification mark. So many people believed that our unification movement was going to die. Many people believed that this mark would no longer mean anything. And that this would become just something in the past never to come up again.

For this mark, all the 1st generations who sacrificed their life and sacrificed their hearts, and walked a path of suffering, persecution,
pain and torture, all that we will not let be thrown away. Tongil-gyo (Unification Church) will not disappear. (Applause) This is why we wear our Tongil mark with pride. (Applause)

This mark is what we fought for. This secret Principle that True Father revealed the give and receive action, the Four Position
Foundation, all centered on the True Love of God. The secret of heaven, the secret to peace, the secret to unity, this we must not let die, this we must not let disappear. This is our pride as church members, this is our heart, is our principle.

I had lunch with President Eun-ju Park, who works at the top publishing company, Gimm-Young Publishers, in Korea that published True Parents’ Autobiography. At that time I was wearing the unification mark around my neck and I said that I wanted to give this to her. I explained, this is True Parents’ teaching. We have give and take action, in the middle we have the Four Position Foundation, God, spouse and children they’re all centered on God’s true love. God’s true love is selfless love. It’s a love that can bring Satan to natural surrender. When we can inherit that true love, then we can become god’s equal partner, and this is a very important teaching. Because this is the teaching that our True Parents have given, and by giving us that teaching they have liberated almighty God.

Liberation of God

If you study the great thinkers of the past or the religions talking about God, we see that God has been very distant and very powerful, almighty, omnipotent and omniscient. According to them, human beings cannot comprehend the almighty god because He is mysterious, that His essence cannot be known because we have limited human understandings.

But from God’s perspective, He’s so lonely. Nobody can come near Him. Nobody can understand Him fully, completely alone. Even though God has millions and millions of fans, not even one can fully understand His heart.

True Parents discovered the essence of God, true love, a selfless love. A love that can bring even Satan, the worst evil force, to
natural surrender. They realized that if human beings could inherit that love then they could become God’s equal partner. And when True Parents’ did inherit that love, they became God’s equal partners. They erased the thousands and thousands years of loneliness. And that is why they have liberated God. (Applause)

So that is why we want you to have hope. Because there is a saying, ‘Without hope you cannot have faith.’ Faith; believes in things you cannot see and if you cannot hope for and believe in for a better future and hope that unification movement will one day truly be able to be impacting the world then it might not happen. So I truly pray that you have hope even in your difficult moments. We are always praying for you and our Japanese movement.

Brothers and sisters we pray always for you in Japan. Let not the situation in Japan deter your faith that we have come this far by
believing in heaven and still heaven has a path and heaven has a way. So I thank you so much brothers and sisters for all you have done. We will always pray for you, thank you so much.

And so in this time in our faith we can see that so many things have been prepared. Society’s view of us has changed. The media’s view of us has changed. There’s tremendous preparation that has been done, that God has done for this period. And so it is our time to truly be confident in our faith, to be confident and to share our faith, like the great commission that all Christians do.

Welcoming Remarks:

Yeon Ah Nim

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Today I truly believe that God IS our strength (refers to the song). I really hope that you have a blessed week. It is always a great honor for us to have you here in this sanctuary. For those who are joining us via internet, we are welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers, and welcome sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim

Welcome brothers and sisters! Today we are going to start with Cheon Seong Gyeong page 600. Father says: “All of you must embrace the hope with which you can overcome any obstacle, even death, when you are confronted by it. After you have travelled that path you must be able to rise joyfully to that original homeland for which you have longed with the hopeful thought of standing tall in front of heaven.”

Brothers and sisters! When we come out to service, offer our hearts and devotion and celebrate together True Parents and God, then it’s so important that we have that kind of hopeful and joyful spirit. There are things in our lives that we can really get weighed down by, things that can be obstacles in our path, but we need to remember what we have as Unification movement – the real commitment and mission to spread True Parents’ message, “Inherit the true love of God,” to the rest of the world. Then this time spiritually becomes very important.

It is time for us to focus on what’s right in our lives, not on what is wrong. When we focus on the goodness of God and on strength, then we start seeing our obstacles in a different way. We start facing our future with more hope and joy, just like our Father said. When we do that then God is going to be able to bring more blessings through us and into our life.

Brothers and sisters, welcome to service! Let’s participate in service with that attitude. Let’s not just observe, let’s sing with the Two Rivers Choir, let’s pray together, meditate together, let’s have all kinds of wonderful practices together and offer it to God and True Parents for all their glory. Welcome to service!

Opening Prayer by Rev. Michael Brazil:

Our Heavenly Father! Our Heavenly Mother! We thank You for this beautiful day that You have given to us and that You helped us to be here today. We are so grateful to You. We want to open our hearts and minds, giving You our thanks and gratitude in deep humility as we stand before You. We recognize Your incredible purity, love and benevolence. We want to inherit that, to go before You with hearts of deep gratitude and without regrets, without remorse, so that we can stand before You as Your true sons and daughters.

We are so grateful for Your supernatural love and guidance and grace. We know that You are raising us up to become better and greater each and every day. Help us to open our hearts and minds today, so that we might better receive Your word, love and truth.

Speak through our speaker today that he may share Your love and truth with us, so that we can be truly empowered to go out and give that true love that we are inheriting from You and from our True Parents. We ask that You bless each person here and each person watching via the internet, that Your grace will shower upon them so that they may feel Your abundant love and feel You raising them up, so that they can be the very best for You and for every person they come in contact with. We thank You, and we most humbly offer all this to You as blessed central families from around the world. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim’s remarks about prayer:

Brothers and sisters, let us take this time to pray for our Abel good spirits. They are our friends in the spirit world who are really making extra effort to look after us, to protect us.

For me and Sun Jin Nuna this is Young Jin Hyung. He is always overlooking us, always helping us.

That kind of person would be your Abel good spirit. You definitely have such a person. It could be your grandmother, your father or mother. Whoever that person is, let us give them strength and let us acknowledge them. Let us offer gratitude to them. Let us offer that in unison ….

(Unison prayer)

We pray all these things for those Abel good spirits, thanking them for protecting us, guiding us and helping us to become the greatest blessings, to live the blessed life.

We offer thanks to them, to our True Parents and to our Heavenly Parents. In our own name. Aju.

Brothers and sisters, it is so important to remember the people who have left before us. It is so easy to forget how important they are and how much they continue to be active in our life. We encourage you to remeber those Abel Angels.

Hyung Jin Nim’s Interesting Story:

Brothers and sisters, let’s give it up for God and True Parents! (Applause) Thank you so much. Please be seated. Let’s encourage the Two Rivers Choir, everybody! Let’s give them a huge round of applause! (Applause)

You know before we start we always like to start with something a little interesting.

I heard a story about a man who went to confession, and he said, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned!” The priest asked, “Well, what is your sin my son?” The man started, “You know this week, I used some terrible, awful, terrible language, and I feel absolutely terrible.” “When did you use this awful language, my son? “ the priest asked. “Well, you know, I was golfing,” the man said, “and I hit an incredible drive, and it looked like it was going to go 250 yards but it struck a power line that was hanging over the green and fell straight down on the ground only after about 100 yards.” “Is that when you swore, when you used bad language?” “No, Father, after that a squirrel ran out of the bushes, grabbed my ball in his mouth and began to run away.” “Is that when you used bad language my son?”

“No, Father, you see, the squirrel was running away and the eagle came down out of the sky, grabbed the squirrel in its talons and flew away.” “Is that when you used bad language my son?” “No, Father, not yet. As the eagle carried the squirrel away in its claws, it flew towards the green, and as it passed over a bit of forest near the green, the squirrel dropped my ball.” “Is that when you swore then? That’s when you swore, isn’t it?” “No, because, you see, the ball fell, it struck a tree, bounced through some bushes, careened off a big rock and rolled through a sand trap onto the green and stopped within 6 inches of the hole!” The priest said,” So, I see, you missed the putt!” (Applause) Oh! You got it today! Oh! You golf lovers, you got it!

Hyung Jin Nim’s Sermon:

Brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you about supernatural preparation today.

We have to know that we live in a supernatural time. As Unification movement we’ve endured the incredible pains and struggles of the indemnity period, and now we’ve entered into the age of liberation through True Parents’ victory. Our church is modernizing; it’s developing to meet the changes of a modern era, and we are changing society’s perspective on Unificationism. Knowing that God has supernaturally prepared this time and being ready to reap this age’s blessing for the UC, this is one of the keys for living the blessed life.

Let’s take a look at some of these world Scriptures today.

Today we’ll start with Christianity, Matthew 7:7. We’ll read that together, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” Here again we see in Christianity’s Scriptures that in the preparation of a new age it’s important that we have to do some portion, we have to ask. If we don’t ask, if we don’t seek, we will not find. The blessings of the age do not pour upon us by us just staying still. We have to do our 5%, so to speak, to be able to reap the blessings.

Let’s take a look at Islam today, the Koran. This is the 13th Sutra. We’ll read that together, “God changes not what is in a people until they change what is in themselves.” Again we see that God just does not pour upon blessings and bring about change in our life until we make the initiative of making that change in ourselves.

Let’s take a look at Daoism today. This is the Daodejing, the 23rd verse. We’ll read that together, “He who conforms to the Way is gladly accepted by the Way; he who conforms to virtue is gladly accepted by virtue.” Again we see that the Way does not just conform us to itself, but we must also conform ourselves, do our 5%, so to speak, to be able to reap the blessings of the virtue and the Way.

Let’s take a look at True Parents’ words from December 11, 1983. We’ll read that together: “God creates to the level of 95% and then human beings should add their efforts in accordance with God’s basic rules for creation in order to establish a value standard of 100%. In this way God wants to give human beings the value of having participated in the completion of His will.” I love that! The value of having participated in the completion of God’s work, allowing us that opportunity!

When we look at the Scriptures we see the story of Jesus, and in Matthew 28:16, after Jesus resurrected, he told the disciples to go to a certain mountain in Galilee. When Jesus told them to go, Jesus appeared to them, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

Then in Matthew 28:18 Jesus came down to them and said,” All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” This is known in Christianity as the ‘great commission.’ The comission to spread the word of Jesus Christ, to spread his message, is one of the most important responsibilities for a Christian.

Jesus said to them that he would be with them, and thus the incredible story and journey of Christianity began. It has grown to become the world’s largest religion with over 1.5 to 2 billion followers worldwide. But when Christ was alive, he was probably one of the most controversial figures.

We think that Christ is very kind and very gentle all the time, floating around on a beautiful cloud, whispering to his disciples and uttering beautiful melodious verses, saying, “Love thy neighbor and do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” etc. But the Bible paints an extremely radical vision of Jesus Christ.

When we look in the Bible we see Jesus as an incredibly super – super – controversial messianic figure. In Matthew 23 there is the chapter called the “7 Woes”, and here Jesus is chastising the Pharisees; he’s chastising the Sadducees. These are different sects within Judaism. I just want to give you a sense of the severity in which he speaks. In Matthew 23:15, Jesus says, “Woe to you teachers of the Law, and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and seek to win a single convert, and when he becomes one you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” This is in the Bible. This is straight out of the Bible!

Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you teachers of the Law, and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you are full of dead men’s bones, and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to be people of righteousness, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Again in Matthew 23:33 Jesus speaks, “You snakes! You brood of vipers!” These are very, very controversial statements. “How will you escape being condemned to hell?” He’s attacking the religious orders here. He’s scathingly condemning them in these scriptures.

Sometimes when we reflect back on ourselves, when we look at our own tradition, sometimes we feel Father uses very controversial language. But when you compare it actually to what’s in the Scriptures, to what Jesus said, it’s actually not as severe as when we see Jesus speaking. In this particular Scripture Jesus is really calling and challenging the other traditions. He’s calling them snakes and vipers and tombs of dead men’s bodies. He uses very controversial language.

But also Jesus’ actions (were controversial), he is eating with prostitutes and tax collectors. As a Jew that would be totally out of the Law, to speak with the people that are really looked down upon in society. Jesus is spending time with them and saying that he is the way, the truth, and the light! A tremendously controversial figure!

And so Jesus at the end was crucified. He died with only 2 people that do not betray him, that do not deny him at his death. We see Mary and Mary Magdalene, his mother and the prostitute Mary Magdalene, who don’t betray him to the end.

Many scholars call Jesus an extremely “outlandish and controversial messiah.” One scholar, when I was at Harvard, said, “Jesus was a social extremist, a very extreme social extremist.” But despite that incredibly outlandish figure, Christianity grows to dominate the entire world, and the story of Jesus is known in every single corner of the globe.

When we compare Christianity’s situation to us, (we see that) True Parents are still here. They haven’t been crucified. They are here, and we are already in some way or another in 180 + nations of this world. We already have thousands and tens of thousands of disciples, believers in True Parents, and society is seeing our movement in a growth stage. It is seeing us change, and it is seeing us mature as an organization, as a movement.

And we are moving to the growth stage temple in Yongsan. That temple is about 5 times bigger than this and it’s not on one of the side streets, it’s on a major highway. We are in a totally visible social area.

And so in this time in our faith we can see that so many things have been prepared. Society’s view of us has changed. The media’s view of us has changed. There’s tremendous preparation that has been done, that God has done for this period. And so it is our time to truly be confident in our faith, to be confident and to share our faith, like the great commission that all Christians do.

We had some wonderful Mormon visitors from our friend Peter. He is a wonderful brother who always is sharing his faith, bringing people to church, always really explaining and sharing his faith, witnessing to so many wonderful people. And we had some wonderful Mormon visitors here, wonderful young people from the States, and we ended up talking after service. They ended up asking what the throne was, what was the meaning of that set-up. We explained about the meaning of True Parents, how we see that they fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ, etc…

And at one point, Peter invited them down, “Oh! Let’s go and have some coffee. We’ll have some coffee downstairs.” And I love how they just simply said, “You know, in our Mormon tradition we don’t drink coffee for this and this and that reason.” As you know, in the Mormon tradition, no addictive substances are allowed, not even coffee or tea. So it was wonderful to see them just explain that, instead of trying to hide, instead of thinking, “Because it may seem strange that we don’t drink coffee or tea, so we don’t know how to explain that.” They were very confident how they explained it. They just very openly, very casually, very naturally explained like this, “You know, in our tradition we don’t consume anything that has the potential to be addictive.”

And when I saw this, it really struck a chord in me, because I really thought, “Yes! This is exactly the way for us to deal with our own faith.”

See, when people ask us what we believe, it is important for us to tell them what we believe, to just be natural about it and be confident about what we believe. When we do it in a round about way like, “Oh! You know, we’re really not a religion. We are just a family federation. We are just peace-loving families gathering together,” then this really does not do justice to our mission and to our religion.

See, we all know that we’re not only here for world peace. We know that’s one part of our mission, but we are a religion with the Divine Principle. We have a Scripture, we have a theology, we have truth, and we believe that True Parents came to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ as the True Parents of heaven and earth. This is a very important part of the Unificationist faith. And so we believe that God has been waiting in pain; He is a God of pain, and He has a providential timeline and a history, to see the day when His children can inherit His true love and then establish families and nations and then a world etc…

When I saw those young people from the Mormon tradition, just being very confident about their faith, there was something very attractive to that, there was something very appealing, very cool about that!

I was talking to Hoon Sook Nim the other day. Of course she is the top ballet here in Korea, and she was having lunch with the Sejong Cultural Center president. That is the biggest cultural center here in Seoul. She was having lunch with him and a couple of other dignitaries at a luncheon, and they were talking about religion.

One of the people ended up talking about Christianity, ended up saying, “I used to live near Chong Pa Dong,” which is this area. “I heard in the early days of the Unification Movement about a Ewha University professor who heard about this very terrible cult called the Unification movement, and who came to actually convert people of that cult to Christianity.”

She came to the church and she ended up being converted herself, became a disciple of True Parents, and all of you know who this person is. That’s the mother of Dr Seuk who is the president of the Korean church. And so he was talking about this situation where he lived in Chong Pa Dong and heard about this incredible university professor who ended up being converted to this small “cult”.

He also heard about Colonel Bo Hi Pak selling his own home at that time to support the church at a very early age.

They had a wonderful luncheon together. They were talking, and at the end they said a prayer. One of the gentlemen there was a Christian elder of a certain region of Seoul. He is part of one of the largest churches in the world and one of the largest churches here in Korea. And so he asked everybody, “Let’s just pray together!” They all grabbed hands and all ended up saying a beautiful prayer together. And after the prayer the Christian elder asked Hoon Sook Nim, “Do you actually have a faith life? Do you practice a faith?” And she said, “Oh, yes I do. I am a Unificationist. My dad is Bo Hi Pak, and my father-in-law is Rev Moon!” Let’s give it up for Hoon Sook Nim! (Applause)

She just said it straight up. She said it straight up! Not hiding it, just straight, “I am proud of who I am. This is my faith, this is my community, my dad, these are my parents, and this is my father,” boom, and boom, boom … very, very confident! And when she confidently expressed it like that, he could not react in a negative way. He only could say, “Oh! That’s very interesting! I was in that area at the time, etc…” She was so confident. This was one of the wonderful things that she was explaining to me, and it really inspired me. This is really awesome! And because of this confidence, she ends up attracting tremendous people to the church.

Just about a month ago, we had the vice-president of Samsung Card come and join us and worship with us at the service. She’s attracting these wonderful people because she’s so open about her faith, about herself as Unificationist.

And in this time the spirit world is moving with us. It’s a prepared time, a supernatural time for us. Just a couple of months ago, in April, when it was the Buddha’s birthday here in Korea – as you know Buddhism is a very large tradition here in Korea – we were invited to represent Unificationism to go visit the temple to be with the monks and the other dignitaries there, and we had a wonderful celebration at the Buddha’s birthday, very wonderful! They treated us so well! There were hundreds and thousands of people that came out to offer gratitude to the Buddha, etc…

And we ended up having lunch with all these VIPs. There were ministers of all the different representative religions, and the cardinal was there. There were Christian ministers, and of course Buddhist monks were out there, etc… The current minister of culture and many current political figures were also out there, and many societal leaders. I met a couple of businessmen and a couple of lawyers that were present.

After I was called up to offer the flowers to the Buddha on behalf of Unificationism, we started exchanging cards very naturally with the VIPs. They started giving cards, receiving cards, doing greetings, and I ended up being seated right next to an evangelical Christian minister. I had no idea that the brother right next to me was an evangelical Christian minister, but as they called us up, “Unificationism, please go up to offer the flowers,” and as I came back he grabbed my hand. He started shaking my hand with this huge smile on his face saying, “Hey! I heard so much about you guys! I heard you guys are going through a lot of good changes, and I heard you are ministering at Chong Padong church.”

He started talking to me, and I was so surprised. This is an evangelical Christian minister, Korean Christian minister, and so excited about Unificationism! (Applause) 50 years ago it was absolutely unheard of to have that kind of reaction from an evangelical Korean Christian minister!

A few weeks later – very interesting, we really feel the spiritual world is moving – a few weeks later, I received a call from that minister. This minister that we were sitting next to at the Buddha’s birthday, he gives me a call. We end up finding out that the minister is the chairman of the Big Seven Religious Forum. That is the biggest religious forum in Korea, including Catholicism, Christianity, Buddhism, etc…the big seven.

Unificationism is not part of that forum. But he said, “Hey! I’d like to introduce you to these guys. And so I’d like to have lunch with you. I would like you to have lunch with us at the big 7.” My God! I’ve been sitting next to this man on the Buddha’s birthday, a Christian minister, and he is the chairman of the Big Seven Religious Forum!

A year ago we saw the placard advertising the 7 great religions in Korea. The 7 great religions of Korea participated in some kind of service activity. But we were very discouraged a year ago when we saw that placard. We saw all the different religions, we even saw Won Buddhism, which is a new form of Buddhism here in Korea that has grown tremendously. But we were very discouraged, because we did not see Unificationism up on that placard.

But here we are, one year later, and the chairman is inviting Unificationism to have lunch with the big 7! This is a great, great start, we really felt! It’s not going to guarantee that we are in this big religious forum, but at least it’s a tremendous start, and we want to offer all the thanks to spiritual world and True Parents and God. Let’s give them a big round of applause! (Applause) I really felt spiritual world was moving!

Father’s book is number 2 on the best-seller list and absolutely, wherever we go, even in the mountain training – every morning we meet those elderly men that are exercising up there – we ended up giving out autobiography books. One of them just this morning wrote us a letter, “Thank you Tong Il Kyo (UC) ministers!” They know who we are.

And we were there at the autobiography party just a couple of weeks ago, and Father got up on the stage. He stressed the importance of the 4 great saints, and that the 4 great saints are moving in the spiritual world. When he was doing that, it really struck me, because just a couple of days before, this minister of the Big 7 Religions, the evangelical Christian minister was inviting us to come to have lunch and participate in that meeting with the other big religions. I really felt, “My goodness, what Father was talking about really is happening in our own lives.”

Another wonderful new progression in our church is happening with Kook Jin Hyung here now managing the Chaedan. As you all know, he moved the businesses from a hundred million dollars debt to now, within 3 years, a 50 million dollar profit. Incredible turn around! But in order to do that he had to hire a lot of new professionals, people who worked in the top 5 companies. Of course, In Sup Nim works with a lot of them as well. In Sup Nim also recruited a lot of those wonderful people.

At that time about 5% of the Chaedan were actually Unificationists. Most of the Chaedan representatives and professionals here were not of our tradition. But I am happy to announce that that percentage has escalated. Now up to 40% of the Chaedan consider themselves Unificationists. Let’s give it up for the Chaedan! (Applause)

And it’s not because they were switched or anything like that. These professionals that worked at the top 5 firms here in Korea, they have taken on the faith of the Unification tradition. They have understood the founder’s philosophy. They went and listened to the Divine Principle lectures. They listened to the different courses at the 21 Heaven’s Fortune Center, etc… and they decided to become Unificationist.

Kook Jin Hyung just told me this the other day when he was talking about the incredible history that is happening here in Korea. You know, Korea for the first time actually raised 22 million dollars for the temple that we will be moving into, for the world temple. That’s an incredible accomplishment! Let’s give it up for Korea! (Applause) Korea did that!

But this is the very amazing thing: The new professionals at the staff of the Chaedan, that had become Unificacionists, took ownership. The Chedan of itself raised over 6 million dollars for the growth stage temple. They did that on their own with new members. This is an absolutely incredible thing that we’ve never seen in the Korean church! (Applause) It’s an absolutely incredible accomplishment!

One of the women CPAs (certified public accountant) whom we meet a lot and whom we work with – she works very close with the Chaedan, she is one of the top CPAs there – is extremely proud of her faith as a Unificationist. I am sometimes surprised when she’s talking about her faith as a Unificationist and how proudly she talks about it. She of course contributed to the temple building. She is also so inspired.

We had a Divine Principle lecture where we were selecting new teachers for the Divine Principle lectures that we do for the Chaedan, and she was one of the judges on the panel, and she was so excited talking about her faith. She was saying,”You know, the reason why I chose this faith is because of this and this and that reason. The reason why I am an Unificationist is for this and this and that reason.” It’s so inspiring to see her so confidently talking about herself as an Unificationist!

And I have seen her in meetings. She is of course one of the most brilliant people at the Chaedan. In the analysis where they analyze and rank the top CPAs, top lawyers etc., in the Chaedan, she was ranked absolutely at the top, number 1. She was off the charts! She’s incredibly brilliant, she is smart, she has an incredible education, and she has an incredible experience base. Just so inspiring to see these kinds of people being excited about their faith as Unificationists!

We work with another person at the Chaedan. He is a human resources director. He’s now helping us reorganize the Headquarter’s church, helping us strengthen the organization, and helping us strengthen the infrastructure here. He was actually the former HR (human resources) director for the LG (group). He ended up giving up that job and coming to our team, and now he considers himself to be a very proud Unificationist. Let’s give it up for him! (Applause) He is helping us restructure the church, and that will help to give strength into our organizations around the world.

And see, these new professionals, these people are new members. They did not grow up in our tradition, they are newly witnessed members. And they have world class talent, they have world class education, they have world class experience. They are in the professional field, some of these individuals for 20-30 years.

So they are a new wave of Unificationists that are helping us. They are helping us to spread the message, “Inherit the true love of God!” They are helping us build our church, build Unificationism, so that it can really do like the great commission, and show the incredible work of True Parents, show the providential significance of True Parents.

And it is so very inspiring that these individuals are inspired as Unificationists. We looked at their membership registration card. Underneath where you put your spiritual dad or spiritual mom they put Kook Jin Hyung as their spiritual dad. He’s got a lot of kids spiritually (applause). It’s so wonderful to see that these young new professionals are joining the movement. They are excited to work with the new leadership, etc…

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? God has done some incredible supernatural preparation for UC. Remember, in the early days when we were in the indemnity period, how much incredible persecution we had to endure! The 1st gen. here in Korea, in Japan, even in the States, endured incredible persecution.

But let’s remember the story of Jesus. When Jesus was alive, only 2 disciples ended up being faithful to him as he passed on the cross. But still the tradition and the story of Jesus ended up being supernaturally spread throughout the entire world.

But compare that to OUR tradition! We are here, True Parents are here. We are already in 180+ nations of the world. We’re teaching our faith to those communities, we’re doing works of service, we’re feeding the poor, we’re providing medicine to the sick, and True Parents are still here!

See, with confidence and faith in this new era, with witnessing and testifying to our own faith, with being confident in what we believe, doing our 5% so to speak, I believe that Unificationism will absolutely move to the world stage, not 2,000 years from now, but we believe that in our lifetime we will see it move to the next stage!! Let’s give it up for UC! (Applause)

And it begins with the momentum being created here in the fatherland. It begins with the momentum here where we have an incredible societal readiness for Unification movement and our teaching and our beliefs. And when we move now to the growth stage and perfection stage temples, where we are much more visible in society’s view, I absolutely declare and I believe that we will see Unificationism move through that supernatural preparation and be endowed with supernatural favor, that we will be able to really share the incredible story of True Parents’ life, of the providential history and of all of our blessed central families throughout this world, and that we will be able to truly inherit the true love of God.

Brothers and sisters, if you accept the message, let’s give it up for God and True Parents this day. (Loud applause) It’s now our time! It really is!!

Prayer after sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

Heavenly Father, True Parents, thank You so much for this incredible day that You have given to us. Father, we thank You for preparing this incredible, supernatural age. It is an age where miracles for our movement begin to happen.

We have sweated and shead our tears and our blood for our Unification movement. We have seen True Parents walking the way of the cross in the indemnity period. We have seen the elders in our movement offering their way on that thorny path. But with the incredible opening of the age of liberation and complete release, True Parents were able to become Your object partner and liberate You from Your loneliness.

We know that because of that, this age is opening, and we see our movement transforming and changing. We see it becoming so much more transparent and fair. We see the movement being accepted in society’s eyes and more and more impressing society. We see that this age has truly been prepared. We want to acknowledge all Your efforts, all Your supernatural efforts that You have done for us. We also want to acknowledge the incredible efforts of the great saints that are with us and moving the religious people to be able to really understand True Parents’ life and providential course.

Thank You so much for this time. We pray that in this time we can have confidence and that we can share our faith with pride. And that we truly know that we will make a difference in this world as Unificationists. We thank You so much for You have truly blessed us. We want to offer all this to You in joy and gratitude in our own names as central blessed families. Aju!

Before we begin, we like to start with something a little interesting. I heard a story about this priest, and he was very busy with an appointment.

He was trying to find a parking spot. He couldn’t find one, and he circled the block over 10 times. He said, “I can’t do anything about this, I have to park in a no parking zone.” So he went and parked his car, and he put a note in his windshield, just in case a police officer may come by. He wrote the note, “Officer, please understand, I’m a priest, and I’m late for an appointment. I need to be here, I need to park here for just a little while. I’ll be right back.” Then in quotation marks he wrote, “Forgive us our trespasses.”

He had his appointment, he came out the building, and he noticed that on his car was a ticket. “Oh come on, I thought this police officer would be a God-fearing man, a man of faith.” He looked at the little note and at what the police officer wrote, “I’ve been on this block for 10 years and if I don’t give you a ticket, I’ll get fired! ‘Lead us not into temptation’!” (Laughter)

Heavenly Father, thank You for bringing us to this sanctuary today. Father, we are here in this beautiful sanctuary, here in the Fatherland of Korea and, Father, we are grateful that You have brought us from all over the world to be able to come here together as one family, Father, as brothers and sisters who have traveled thousands of miles to be with us here.

Father, we pray that You may be with each and every one of the brothers and sisters here and may You bless them with Your holy hands and may You give them divine health. We pray that You may give them abundance and blessing and that through them this world may become a more blessed place.

Father, we thank You for this joy that we are able to receive. We pray that You may also receive our hearts, our minds, Father, and all that we wish to offer to You today. We pray that it may bring You joy, that it will bring You happiness and that it may bring You pride in seeing Your children.

Thank you so much Father. We pray that we may truly be the children that can lift up Your head and hands today and give us the strength that we need to go forth towards the amazing future.

Thank You so much for bringing us here and we pray offering an everlasting love and a profound gratitude in the names of all the Central Blessed Families gathered here together in one name. Aju!